A Complete Beginner Guide to World of Warcraft

Want to dive into World of Warcraft but not sure where to start? We've got you covered! In this guide, we'll go over the key aspects of the game in a short and easy-to-follow way, so you'll know exactly what to do when you kick off your adventure — whether on your own, with friends, or with the help of WoW services.

Ready to make your first steps in Azeroth? Let's go then!

Subscription & Expansions

WoW is a subscription-based game, meaning you need to pay a monthly fee to enjoy the full experience. You also need to buy expansions to access additional content.

You can try the game for free, though! The modern version of WoW lets you play up to level 20 without any payment. You can create multiple characters, but they'll all be capped at level 20 unless you subscribe. This option is only available for Retail WoW; Classic doesn't offer free play.

There's also an item called WoW Token that grants 30 days of game time and can be purchased either with real money or in-game gold via the Auction House.

Realms

First off, you'll need to pick a realm, or a server, to play on. Realms are more important in the endgame and have little effect on your early journey, but there still are a few things to keep in mind:

• Server Population: Low-pop servers offer a more solo experience, while high-pop ones are great for group play but come with long queues, crowded areas, and busy public chats.
• Server Type: Normal or RP (Role-Playing). RP servers have specific rules for social interactions and are designed for players who enjoy immersion and character-driven stories.
• You can only group with others on the same realm.
• Some servers may be dominated by one of the game's two factions. Check Raider.io or WoWProgress websites for detailed info on server status, population, and faction balance.

To change your realm after entering the game world, you'll either need to create a new character or pay for a Character Transfer.

Character Creation

Factions & Races

In WoW, there are two main factions: Horde and Alliance, each with its own set of aligned races. There also are neutral races, such as Dracthyr, Pandaren, and Earthern, which can join either faction.

Factions have different quests, cinematics, gear aesthetics, and capital cities, but it won't significantly affect your overall gameplay, so just settle on a race that you like and go with their faction. You can always change it later for a fee or simply create a new character.

Classes

Classes define your character's playstyle, abilities, skills, and specializations. There are 13 classes, each with 2-4 specs.

We recommend picking the class you find most fun to play. Pay attention to its role, though: you can either be a tank that soaks damage and taunts the enemy, a healer that restores HP for the group, or a DPS that's all about nuking the enemy.

Here are a couple of classes that are generally easier to learn:

• Beast Mastery Hunter
• Fury Warrior
• Destruction Warlock
• Havoc Demon Hunter
• Devastation Evoker
• Frost Mage
• Retribution Paladin

For a more in-depth class breakdown, check out guides on WowHead or IcyVeins.

Starting Up

Questing & Leveling

Questing and killing mobs are your primary XP sources as you level up.

NPCs with a quest ready have an exclamation mark above their heads, which is also shown on your map. When you're done with the quest, the exclamation mark turns into a question mark, signaling that you can hand it in and receive your reward, which typically includes XP, currency, and gear.

At level 10, you'll choose a spec for your class, and from that moment on, start earning Talent Points you can insert in your Talent Tree to gain new abilities and bonuses. If your build goes wrong, don't worry — you can reset the points and start over anytime.

Gear

Gear makes your character's primary source of power, with each piece having its item level. The higher the ilvl, the better equipped you are to handle more difficult content.

Some items also increase your primary stats, like Intellect, Agility, and Strength, or secondary ones — Haste, Crit, Mastery, and Versatility. Early in the game, you don't need to worry about min-maxing your build, but if you find a stat-boosting item, don't hesitate to equip it.

Dungeons

Available in Normal, Heroic, and Mythic tiers, dungeons are group-based PvE content where you team up with other players to fight enemies and earn loot and XP.

To access dungeons, use the Dungeon Finder by clicking the eye icon in the bottom right of your UI. You can queue for all dungeons except Mythic ones, which require you to join a Pre-made Group. If you're new, we recommend queuing as a tank or healer only if you're confident in those roles, as teammates may get toxic if you don't perform well. The safest option for beginners is to go as a DPS since dealing damage is a much easier task to handle.

Battlegrounds

Unlocked at level 10, Battlegrounds are team-based PvP matches where you fight against other players for objectives and earn Honor, gear, and other items. You can use Honor to buy PvP equipment.

Professions

Professions offer a unique set of skills your character can master to create, gather, or modify items. You can only take up two Primary professions and as many Secondary ones as you want. While purely optional, professions add a new layer of progression to your character, which is both fun and profitable, as you can craft or gather valuable items for personal use or selling them at the Auction House.

Leveling professions can be costly — you'll need to spend gold — but it's very important because higher levels allow you to unlock new recipes and improve the quality of your crafts. To start a profession, talk to any City Guard, and they'll mark the profession trainer on your map.

Endgame Content

Endgame refers to the activities available once you've reached the maximum level. For new players, this isn't something to worry about just yet, but we'll quickly go over the main activities anyway, just to give you a glimpse of what to expect.

Mythic+ Dungeons

Mythic+ are a more difficult version of standard dungeons, with added affixes that introduce new mechanics and increase the challenge. You start with Mythic +0 and, on completion, earn an upgradable key to progress to higher difficulties (Mythic +2, +3, etc.). At the end of the dungeon, you'll receive a loot chest with rewards based on the difficulty.

Raids

Similar to dungeons but more mechanically complex, raids are PvE instances where you have to beat mobs and bosses for loot. LFR (Looking For Raid) is the easiest tier you can queue up for. It's a bit different from regular runs but still gives you a good sense of the raid's mechanics and encounters. There also are Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties, each with ilvl requirements to enter.

Arenas & Rated Battlegrounds

Arenas offer 2v2, 3v3, and Solo Shuffle PvP battles. Rated Battlegrounds are similar to regular Battlegrounds, but here you earn rating points based on match results. You also earn rating points for Arena matches. Additionally, in both activities, you earn Honor/Conquest Points, which you can spend on PvP gear from vendors.

Final Word

Our WoW beginner's guide comes to an end here. We hope it was helpful and gave you a solid understanding of the game's basics, as well as a great starting point for your journey into the incredible world of Azeroth. The beauty of the game is that you can play however you want and engage in whatever you enjoy, so don't be afraid to explore and try new things. And most importantly, have fun!

by Web Desk via Digital Information World

Study Finds AI Models Unprepared to Tackle Financial Problems, Far from Replacing Professionals

A new study by researchers from Clemson University and Washington State University finds that ChatGPT isn't completely reliable to give financial advice yet. The researchers analyzed 10,000 responses from AI after asking it different questions about finance and the results revealed that AI still has a long way to go until it can take over finance jobs. ChatGPT and other AI models are good enough to specify broader concepts of finance and summarize the issues and their solutions but it still cannot work on it thoroughly and in detail.

Many people like Goldman Sachh predicted that 15% to 35% finance jobs will be soon assisted by AI and it may take over the jobs of asset and wealth managers. But this study highlights that there is no need to panic because AI still doesn't have adequate knowledge of finance that is needed to handle the large systems. Even though AI can pass finance certification exams, it still isn't enough and we need to find what these AI models can actually do.

The researchers of the study assembled 1083 MCQs from different finance licensing exams and tested AI models like ChatGPT, Bard and LLaMA. These exams are required to be passed by human financial professionals in order for them to get a license. The researchers evaluated the responses of AI models based on how well they could explain the reasoning behind choosing a certain answer and how much sophisticated language they used while giving explanations.

ChatGPT-4 showed the best results, with 18% to 28% more accurate answers than other AI models. When researchers gave ChatGPT-3.5 some examples of responses, it nearly matched the responses of ChatGPT-4 showing that it can also give accurate answers which can resemble human professionals. There was a 73.4% accuracy on answers about customer accounts, trading and prohibited activities by both these models, but both of them showed less accuracy(56.6%) on answers about investment objectives and client financial profiles. There were also inaccurate answers by both models on specified problems related to tax status and insurance coverage.

The team of researchers also asked ChatGPT to evaluate potential merger deals and are now exploring how well this AI model can do if they test it on the deals that came after September 2021. Overall, the limitations of AI when it comes to finance are still there are AI models are not ready at all to do high-profile financial tasks as they can have serious legal and financial consequences.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Crypto Thefts On The Rise As More Than $2.2 Billion Stolen From Various Platforms in 2024

A new report by Chainalysis is shedding light on the growing rise of crypto theft incidents. In 2024 alone, more than $2.2 billion worth of crypto was stolen from these apps.

This is not the first time that such alarming reports made the air. It’s in fact the fifth time in the past decade that we’re hearing about more than $1B getting stolen. In other years, the number of theft reportings rose in 2018, 2021, 2022, and even 2023.

Another very interesting point in this report has to do with Chainalysis seeing the trend where crypto was stolen from in terms of exact location. It was commonly observed that DeFi platforms were a prime target for stealing including in the first quarter of this year. Meanwhile, during the second and third quarters, the focus tends to shift to centralized apps. Some noteworthy mentions include DMM Bitcoin and the WazirX where nearly $305M and $234M were stolen.

The growing rise in attacks on these apps has brought to attention another very interesting point related to private security features. Most of these hacking incidents arose due to compromised private keys that gave hackers the greatest access to such funds. So to prevent such thefts, apps must take this into consideration and better security.

There is another notable mention of countries like North Korea which is to blame for a huge number of crypto theft incidents. The country might be closed but it ended up stealing close to $1.3B worth of valuable crypto assets this year from a whopping 47 different incidents.

This is a massive 61% growth in crypto theft in 2024 alone and the matter made up more than 20% of all such incidents. It’s quite sophisticated in terms of its tactics and it uses them to produce nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

Remember, Bitcoin’s price continues to hit new highs in the past couple of weeks and hacks keep rising as it’s a simple way for many to make revenue. This is why platforms should invest in building up users’ trust through better security measures or it can be uneventful for all involved.

This is why the report highlights crypto regulatory networks and the need to keep getting better. With the right law enforcement in place and resources, the industry can become more trustworthy.

Read next: AI Competition Heats Up As Google Shares First Reasoning-Focused LLM Called Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

AI Competition Heats Up As Google Shares First Reasoning-Focused LLM Called Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking

The AI battle continues to heat up as Android maker Google just shared its latest reasoning-focused large language model dubbed Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking. The model is equipped to give OpenAI a run for its money as Google promises better performances in the world of science, coding, and even math.

The models are designed to solve the most complex tasks involving reasoning and while it’s still an experimental design, the anticipation is growing among tech experts. As per the Android maker, the latest model is for developers to benefit from inside the company’s AI Studio.

Back in September, the tech giant did share how it was trying to better its models so they gave out more intelligence and suitable responses. It seems like that time is here. Google shared how the results were certainly promising with enhanced inference timing for computation.

However, the company didn’t share the inference timing computation which it reportedly increased. No other benchmarks were available publicly to make the claims. But as per Chatbot Arena, this Flash Thinking model currently ranks at the number one position for all domains. Google also shared many use cases in the developer portal for users to test Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking models.

The model shows support for text lengths greater than 128k and even comes with cutting-edge stats for knowledge. Furthermore, developers attain access to the latest Gemini reasoning models through a Gemini API inside Google’s AI Studio and the Vertex AI.

During the week’s start, OpenAI shared how its new o1 reasoning models are launching to developers on usage tier 5 inside the API. This latest update for the o1 model gives rise to the best results on different AI benchmarks.

Meanwhile, developers also get the chance to make use of it to create apps for better client support and optimize the entire supply chain decision. It’s also wonderful for matters such as making financial trend predictions.

The latest unveiling of the LLMs provides developers with more power systems to create the most innovative AI apps throughout different industries. We can see how this launch can really safeguard Google’s mark as a strong contender in the world of AI as it takes on OpenAI.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

Instagram Shares A Glimpse of Exciting Video AI Elements Coming Soon To The App

It’s clear that Meta wants to make a mark with AI and that’s why its recent target is introducing new AI video elements on the Instagram platform.

Instagram’s chief just shared a glimpse of some new and exciting AI video features that are coming soon. Amongst those include the Movie Gen Engine where users get the chance to rollout wholesale edits of videos in-stream.

Similarly, it is launching the option to switch backgrounds, representations, outfits, and even Muppet variants of themselves. It’s all very interesting and might give rise to some more exciting and creative trends. However, it’s also one step away from the social aspect of the platform where users share connections and experiences with their followers.

AI only comprises pictures and videos that have very little to do with one’s life or even creativity. The video edits feel more aligned where it still involves captured content and only that can give rise to the most compelling clips. Remember, elements of visual storytelling come with enhancements that assist in building up a post.

The same cannot be said for image generation through AI. It’s all quite interesting and novel but we don’t see this as being something complimentary within the social media realm. You can produce images of aliens but it cannot symbolize things that are real, right? Users can roll out images of the beach but what happens when they’re not going in the first place?

• Also read: Are Surveillance Cameras Making Us More Aware of Our Actions and Surroundings?

Meta’s latest AI video tools do give the right enhancements and also lead to exciting creative forms inside the app. We feel that some would find it so valuable. Still, the main point worth considering is storytelling and that is quintessential right now. If social isn’t a part of it, how do you interact? It’s just plain images and videos flashing on your screen and brains, giving you utter confusion.

That might be the end result for Generative AI in the end with surreal creations designed to play with the brain. So the take-home message is that narratives are crucial in the world of social media and you’ve got to understand that.

This would happen as more and more people start to experiment with different options. How valuable they end up being, only time can tell. For now, it’s a great point to better communicate through human feelings or emotions.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

AI in the Workplace: Majority of Workers Avoid Paying for Tools, Survey Shows

According to a new survey by Tech Brew, most of the office workers do not pay for AI tools for their work. AI is getting quite common in workplaces and many office workers have started using it during their work too, but the results of the survey suggest that most of the office workers are not spending anything on AI.

Out of 878 people who were surveyed, 78% of them said that they do not pay anything for AI tools, while only 16% spend $1-$20 on AI tools every month. Only 5% of respondents said that they have allocated more than $20 every month for the AI tools that they use.

The survey also found that more than half of the respondents use AI at work, whether it's provided by their company or they use on their own. 23% of them use customized AI tools, 30% of them use third party AI tools and 38% of the respondents reported using AI tools on their own while working.

The people who are more likely to pay for AI tools are business owners(43%) and freelancers(31%) and they are the ones that pay for AI independently. Most of the other workers have their companies for any AI tools they use during their work. When the respondents were asked why they are not using paid AI tools, most of them said that cost was a problem. Sometimes, companies cannot handle the extra expense of paying for AI tools and other times, the workers do not have the capacity to pay on their own.

• Related: Study Reveals Prolonged Standing May Pose Health Risks, Challenging Desk Job Solutions

69% of the respondents said that they always use AI at work, followed by 32% who use them often and 26% who use AI tools only sometimes. 13% of the respondents said that they use AI rarely while 18% said that they have never used AI tools for work. There was an age factor when it came to using AI at work. Workers between the ages of 18-24 are more likely to use AI Tools than people of older ages. People with ages more than 44 are more likely to not use AI Tools at work at all. Gen-Z said that AI helps them sound professional at work and guides them and how to make emails and rewrite things to sound professional.

Respondents from marketing and advertising reported using AI persuasively, with 90% saying that they use AI tools sometimes. 78% of the respondents from technology and computer industry also reported using AI for work, with Microsoft CoPilot, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Adobe being the most used AI tools.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Google Warns Gmail Users of Rising Cyber Threats Ahead

Google is warning its 2.5 billion Gmail users about a looming second wave of cyber threats. Attackers, it seems, are gearing up for the final push of the year. While phishing attacks have dropped by 35% compared to last year’s holiday season, there’s been a massive increase in email traffic since mid-November, making it harder than ever to protect users’ inboxes. Google, as the world’s most popular email service, remains a top target for hackers, but the company is doing everything it can to shield users from these persistent threats.

To this end, Google has invested heavily in new technology. They’ve developed AI models specifically designed to detect phishing, malware, and spam. According to Andy Wen, Gmail’s senior director of product management, these new systems have already blocked 20% more spam than before. One of the latest models is an AI tool that acts as a supervisor, reviewing hundreds of potential threats in an instant. It’s all part of Google’s effort to stay ahead of cybercriminals, but even with these innovations, the fight is far from over.

As we head into the busiest time of year, Google is warning users about three specific scams that have resurfaced. First, the “We know where you live” extortion scam. Attackers send emails with personal information about the victim—like their home address—along with threats of physical harm or blackmail. It’s a tactic designed to frighten people into responding quickly without thinking.

Image: Google

Second, there’s the Gmail invoice scam. It’s as old as the internet, but still effective. Fraudulent invoices are sent to victims, claiming they owe money for a service or product. The scammer then urges the victim to call a phone number to dispute the charges. Once the victim is on the line, the scammer uses pressure tactics to trick them into paying fees or handing over personal information.

• Related: New Report Reveals Rising Trend of Fake Captchas and Malvertising on the Internet

Lastly, we have the celebrity impersonation scam. In this case, attackers send emails pretending to be famous personalities, either claiming they’re endorsing a product or trying to sell something in their name. It’s a clever trick that preys on trust, making people more likely to click or buy something they wouldn’t otherwise.

The good news is, you don’t have to fall for these scams if you stay alert and think critically. Google’s advice is simple, slow down and think. Don’t let the sense of urgency get the best of you. If something feels off or sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Take a minute to double-check the email address of the sender. And remember, no reputable organization will demand money or personal details via email. An important tip is to search key parts or the entire suspicious email or message on Google, which might reveal clues about its authenticity. 

If you get a suspicious email, don’t hesitate to report it. By marking these messages as spam, you’re not just cleaning up your inbox; you’re also helping Google improve its AI defenses, making Gmail safer for everyone.

In the end, protecting your Gmail account is just like locking your front door. You can have all the security systems in place, but you still need to take care in how you open it. Cybercriminals are always looking for ways in. The key is to stay alert, think before you act, and use the tools available to keep your inbox safe.

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by Web Desk via Digital Information World